Friday, January 08, 2010

University of Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly has filled two key leadership positions on his coaching staff as Bob Diaco has been hired as defensive coordinator and Charley Molnar has been hired as offensive coordinator, Kelly announced Thursday.

Both Diaco and Molnar were on Kelly's coaching staff at Cincinnati in 2009. Diaco was the Bearcats' defensive coordinator and coached the inside linebackers while Molnar served as passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.

With the Irish, Diaco will also work with the inside linebackers and Molnar will coach the quarterbacks.

As with the previous hires, both will hit the road right away to visit recruits. Checking their bios, you can see that Diaco will only be in his second year as a defensive coordinator while Molnar has a bit more experience, coordinating offenses at Illinois State, Kent State, and Indiana State. Of course, when it comes to the offense Brian Kelly will be the one who calls the plays, much like Charlie called them the past few years. No doubt with his relative inexperience and the play of Cincinnati's defense down the stretch this past season, Diaco will be the one assistant coach that ND fans give the least benefit of the doubt. (On the other hand, in his one year as UC's DC he changed the defensive system from 4-3 to 3-4, had to replace 10 starters from the 2008 team, and still managed to field a defense that finished the year 44th in scoring defense.)

Taking a look at their released statements (Diaco, Molnar) here's the executive summary of how they plan on running ND's defense and offense, respectively.

Diaco on defense:"It bases out of a 3-4. We've created a system where we go quickly from three down linemen to four down linemen and we can get that reduced player wherever we need it to be. That's part of the overall package. One great thing about basing out of a 3-4 is the element that the offense doesn't know where the fourth rusher will be coming from. A fourth rusher can come from the field. A fourth rusher can come from the boundary. A fourth rusher can come from the inside."

Molnar on offense:"We'll run a spread offense that operates at a high tempo. Our players will play hard and they will be fundamentally sound. We'll be a team that will push the ball down the field through the vertical passing game but also understand the importance of having an effective rushing attack."

More to come on all of the assistants once the full staff is announced and we get a clear picture of exactly where all the position, recruiting, and special teams responsibilities fall.